51 military hospitals preparing coronavirus facilities including ICU

NEW DELHI: Fifty-one military hospitals across India are preparing dedicated coronavirus facilities including intensive care units for tackling the outbreak, the defence ministry said on Friday.
Some of these facilities are located at Kolkata, Vishakhapatnam, Kochi, Dundigal near Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kanpur, Jaisalmer, Jorhat and Gorakhpur.

Besides medical, the armed forces are also providing logistics support to the civilian authorities, coming at a time when the lockdown has affected road and rail networks. The transport fleet of the Indian Air Force has supplied 60 tons of essential supplies, medicines and medical equipment across the country. Twenty eight fixed wing and 21 helicopters are on standby at various locations across the country.

Six naval ships are ready at Vizagapatam, Kochi and Mumbai to transport important supplies and medical equipment to neighbouring countries. These ships are likely to transport important supplies and medical equipment. Five medical teams are also on standby for deployment in Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan.

“Dedicated COVID-19 facilities including High Dependency Units, Intensive Care Unit beds are being prepared in 51 hospitals of the armed forces across the country. Some of these facilities are located at Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Dundigal near Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kanpur, Jaisalmer, Jorhat and Gorakhpur,” the ministry said.

Earlier this week, the Chief of Defence Staff had informed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, during a review meeting of the defence ministry’s efforts towards tackling coronavirus, that 9,000 hospital beds in military hospitals have been made available to the government. These beds are in 28 hospitals of the army, air force and navy earmarked for treating coronavirus patients.

Five viral testing labs at armed forces hospitals, which can carry out COVID-19 testing, have been made part of the national grid. These include Army Hospital (Research & Referral), Delhi Cantt; Air Force Command Hospital, Bangalore and Armed Forces Medical College, Pune; Command Hospital (Central Command), Lucknow and Command Hospital (Northern Command), Udhampur. Six more hospitals are being equipped shortly with the resources to begin COVID-19 testing.

“Transport fleet of the IAF is being used to assist in transportation of essential supplies, medicines and medical equipment. So far, approximately 60 tonnes of stores have been airlifted to various parts of the country. Twenty eight fixed wing and 21 helicopters are on standby at various locations across the country,” the ministry said.

The IAF had earlier said that 25 tons of medical supplies, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), hand sanitisers, surgical gloves, besides medical personnel, were airlifted from Delhi, Surat and Chandigarh to Manipur, Nagaland and the union territories of J&K and Ladakh during March end.

The IAF’s C-17 Globemaster III was also sent to Iran and brought back 58 stranded Indians and 529 samples for COVID-19 investigation. The C-130J Super Hercules aircraft has also ferried around 6.2 tonnes of medicines to Maldives.

An Army Medical Corps team consisting of five doctors, two nursing officers and seven paramedics was deployed in Maldives for capacity building measures and assisted in setting up their own testing, treatment and quarantine facilities between March 13-21.

About 1,737 have been kept at six armed forces quarantine facilities at Mumbai, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Hindon, Manesar and Chennai. Out of 1,737, 403 have been released. “Fifteen other facilities are being kept ready as standby for use, if required,” the ministry said.

The 15 locations are Army (Babina, Jhansi, Barmer, Bhopal, Kolkata and Binnaguri), IAF (Bhatinda, Hyderabad, Deolali, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Agra) and Navy (Vishakhapatnam, Kochi and Chilka).